ANGRY customary landowners on San Jorge Island off the mainland of Isabel Province have provided new photographs which they say support their claims the operation there is not prospecting but actual mining activities.
They said Far East Resources Company Ltd doe pros not hold a Mining Lease. It does have a prospecting licence granted on 5th July this year.
The photographs below were taken on site just two days ago. The first photo shows a large building being erected with what seems like a road leading to the wharf where prize minerals are offloaded onto barges
“You’ll be a fool to believe this is prospecting. It’s like calling a duck instead of what clearly is a hen,” one landowner described the activities on site.
The nickel-rich site is being developed by a company called Far East Resources Ltd.
Below is another photograph taken on site two days ago. It shows a huge road being carved out of the side of a mountain leading to the sea.
A landowner this week called on the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification to investigate the company’s activities on Isabel.
“I if is found the company’s activities confirm our suspicion that Far East Resources Ltd is engaged in mining activities, its prospecting licence should be revoked.”
The company this week began the pre-requisite Environmental Impact Assessment Study, according to another landowner, John Kabu.
“These are things that should have been done in the first place,” Mr Kabu, an arch critic of Far East Resources Company Ltd, told Solomon Star earlier this week.
Mr Kabu said the company appears to have failed the compliance test.
But a spokesman vehemently denied Far East Resources Company Ltd had cut corners in its haste to get to the export lode which is only about six foot-deep from the surface.
Far East Resources Company Ltd told Solomon Star it upholds the law of Solomon Islands.
By Alfred Sasako
